Chapter 3.5

Posted on Thu Sep 14th, 2023 @ 2:39am by Willian Targaryen & Commander Galatea & Commander Emko Xasx & Lieutenant Commander Ialo Gojir & Lieutenant Rrawran & Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Aiden Crowe & Captain Nathan Bishop & Commander Ash Randall & Commander Nathan Hawkins & Lieutenant Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Cyrus Marner & Lieutenant R'relle & Ensign Aqua Powers & Warrant Officer Harris Zim

5,807 words; about a 29 minute read

Mission: Remember Everything
Location: U.S.S. Enterprise
Timeline: 3189-03-17, 10:30

=/\= Main Bridge =/\=

Lieutenant Aiden Crowe watched the sensor readings on the Helm console closely. With Battle Group Omega facing them down and the USS Explorer hanging off their bow this was going to get dangerous and it was going to get that way fast. The young Titaner owed a lot to Battle Group Omega and this was a hard position to be in. The Captain of the Explorer was asserting that Battle Group Omega had been a threat to Starfleet, but was it true? Could the Explorer have been the real aggressor? All was possible.

"Spatial disturbance inbound."

Glancing over at their Vulcan Science Officer, Aiden returned his full attention to the displays in front of him. He would have preferred to have a more interactive programmable matter interface for this, but he knew a beggar couldn't be a chooser. He had to make due with what he had as the spatial disturbance closed in. Looking at the data his heart sank, "Captain, readings suggest its similar to the shockwave that caused the Burn."

Willian tapped the control to activate the protective harness built into his chair for added stability. He was about to issue orders, but it was too late. The spatial disturbance passed through the Battle Group first then hit the Enterprise on its starboard quarter with Explorer next. The Captain was shocked that it wasn't at all what he expected. The ship rocked slightly as the wave passed through, but no more than when they encountered a pocked of subspace turbulence. Some consoles flickered, a couple systems momentarily went offline, but it wasn't what he was anticipating with Lieutenant Crowe's warning.

Then things started to fall apart.

"Captain? We HAVE a problem." The Chief Engineer announced, in a calm voice, over the comm. "Whatever that distortion was, it appears to have neutralized our warp core, dilithium, matrix. Core breach is imminent unless we are able to purge the anti-matter intermix chamber to magnetic containment." She continued. "Initiating purge..." She stated and the comm went quiet.

"Ash? Ash? Engineering, report!" Willian said in response as he wondered what was happening with the ship. "Exec, see if you can get down there and find out what's going on. Doctor, Counselor, there may be injuries so accompany the XO."

Bishop was already moving toward the lift. "Aye sir." He replied crisply as he waited for the counselor and doctor to join in st the lift so they could get to engineering and get a first hand account of what the situation was.

R'elle nodded and got out of her chair and followed Bishop to the turbo lift. If he could help she would. He tail was twitching. The situation was serious. The engineers and those with the know how could figure out how to get them out of this. Her job was to help the wounded! That she was good at.

Cyrus was getting that dejavu feeling, like something he'd experienced before when he first arrived on the ship, how long ago was that. He was stuck where he was, feeling some shock, and wondered where his trusty tackle box was. He blinked several times picking himself up from the floor where he had fallen. he pulled himself together and darted towards the turbolift, stepping inside with the others. The other thought he had was, is Libby alright!" this sent ripples through his mind. Is she alright?

Galatea was standing behind Jardok at the Science Console, carefully observing the details that were being displayed on the workstation. The android woman reached up toward the top of the wallmounted console and entered a sequence of numbers on the display, curious about what was coming through. Taking the seat next to the Vulcan, the Federation Security Officer started running her own analysis.

"What's the status of the Explorer?" Emko Xasx called out from his place at the front of the Bridge, his jailer still standing next to him.

Willian nodded to Zim, curious himself.

Zim had taken the impact in stride. Although his want to stay on his feet did cost him a nasty gash on his head. A purplish red liquid seeped from the wound but Zim paid it no mind. "The Explorer is far off our starboard..." he bagan the report as he continued to read the data on his console. "...She is adrift, all propulsion, weapons, and shields are down. However, life support is intact."

"Ensign," Willian turned toward the Communications Officer, "See if you can raise either the Explorer or Stargazer." Willian couldn't believe he was issuing such an order for the Stargazer, especially after they had declared Enterprise renegade.

"CRAP CRAP CRAP! This stupid thing's gone haywire!" Aqua screamed as fear raced through her being.

Aqua started to shiver. She'd not felt this kind of fear since she was fourteen and had been thrown from a malfunctioning rollercoaster.

Hearing an alarm calling out, Willian looked at the Operations Officer, "Nathan?"

"We have another problem," Hawkins announced weakly feeling queasy at what he at the data he was receiving. "The Hekaras Corridor is failing. I'm picking up increased levels of Tetyron Flux." He swallowed heavily feeling as if they'd not just leapt from the frying pan and into the fire but directly into the furnace: "A subspace tear has appeared."

"On screen," The Captain ordered as he deactivated the restraints and walked toward the forward stations. "Magnify."

The main screen of the Enterprise switched from a forward view to the emerging subspace tear. It was beautiful in an obscene way. The very fabric of space-time before them was unraveling. The darkness of space was gone, replaced by the brightest white light that the former Admiral had ever seen in his life. Inside an energy pulsed, swirling intensely like a maelstrom. It made the Captain feel sick to his stomach, but he knew there was a job that they had to do.

"Analysis."

Jardok answered, "The rift is almost a quarter light-year in diameter and is expanding, Sir. As Commander Hawkins reported I am reading incredible amounts of Tetryon Radiation being emitted from the site. At the moment our shields are able to compensate for the radiation levels, but they will be overwhelmed in approximately eight hours."

"This is what the Hekarans predicted, Captain," Crowe said as he turned away from his console.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Willian corrected as he turned away from the viewer and back toward the crew. "We checked on the Explorer, what about the rest of the Battle Group? See if we can get a fix on their position, Tactical."

Zim continued to work at the tactical sensors. Getting them to fine tune and zero in was a feat unto itself with all the damage that they had taken. However, in due course Harris managed it. He sighed heavily as he saw the nasty display in front of him. "The Stargazer is within the rift sir. Not only has she been battered by the initial wave but the ship is taking damage from the subspace turbulence just as we are. However, their damage is more severe as they are within the rift proper. If you want to save them it would be possible to proceed to the event horizon on thruster power and engage a tractor beam. Once the tractor is engaged we can use impulse to get them out. Tow them just enough to escape the rift. That should at the very least stave off their destruction."

"How long can they survive in there?" Aiden asked, genuinely concerned.

Jardok turned away from the wall station. Momentarily, his former training as a Counselor kicked in and he felt concern for Lieutenant Crowe as he had served aboard the Stargazer. He, however, had to be honest, even if using a sympathetic voice, "I am not an expert on the construction techniques of this era; nonetheless, the waves we are experiencing are more severe near the location the Stargazer is currently in. If I had to guess I'd say their shields will fail within the next ten hours."

"We cannot afford to lose even a single ship, even if it is a renegade." She looked at Zim then back at the Captain, "Zim had an excellent idea. Can we implement it?"

"According to these readings, the state of instability is accelerating. This would indicate that it is extremely sensitive to warp field energy. If we go in at warp, we might make it expand even further," Jardok had lost the sympathetic tone.

Crowe interrupted, "We can't just do nothing! It would take us too long to get to them at impulse!"

"We also can't ignore the fact that Engineering is working right now to keep the ship in one piece from that mini-Burn," the Captain pointed out. "I want an option, even if its not a good one."

Zim's eyes widened briefly as an idea formed, he turned to Jardok. "Lieutenant you said if we go in at warp that would expand the anomaly further. However, what if we used maneuvering thrusters, impulse or even the coaxial drive? If none of those would worsen the anomaly then we may be in business."

Jardok shrugged, "Impulse could work, but their distance from us is significant. It would take us weeks to travel there."

"Like I said," Crowe mumbled.

Willian interrupted to correct, "Lieutenant." He looked at Jardok, "Continue." The ship shook from the impact of another distortion.

"I have run an analysis of the region and there are areas of lower instability," he transferred the scans to the viewscreen, "nevertheless, we have a secondary concern." The Vulcan typed on his keyboard and another location was highlighted, "This is a second region of instability, outside of the rift itself." Another appeared, "A third." The Vulcan turned back toward the Bridge Crew, "This entire region is at risk of subspace collapse."

Galatea stepped forward from her console, "The Hekaras Corridor is one of the most important locations to shipping within the galaxy. If it fails transport through this region would be increased by 2.78 months for any ship needing to reach the opposite side. We would also virtually lose access to the Hekarans, their planet being several light-years inside the corridor."

"Damn," Willian sighed and mumbled, "Why is everything in this era always about the destruction of an entire planet or an entire species getting killed off? We will consider that Plan Z, now how about Plans B-Y?"

Aqua listened to the voices around her...but she wasn't paying them much mind...she was looking at the screen, trying to see a way to help the other ship before they...

"We can hopscotch!" Aqua screamed, shooting to her feet and spinning in a circle!

Willian turned his head, quickly, toward the Communications Officer. he was about to speak when he heard an interruption through his communicator.

"Ash to the bridge. We're in a bad place here. Why haven't we bugged out yet?" She asked, politely.

"Standby Ash, but stay on channel," Willian said, but didn't mute the channel, "Ensign, hopscotch?"

The unexpected cry caused Hawkins to turn quickly startled by her outbrust.

"Those openings in space where it's stable means we can use warp in those places to hopscotch through space to get to them faster than by just Impulse alone!" Aqua retook her seat as she spoke, but her hands were in constant motion, emphasizing her idea.

Zim had his hands moving deftly over the Tactical controls. Why he was not sure what would happen next, he did want to be ready for everything and anything. When Ensign Powers mentioned hopscotch the grizzled Warrant Officer was as much at a loss as the Captain. So, while he prepared he kept his ears open to listen to what the Ensign had in mind.

"Hopping from pocket of stability to pocket of stability, using warp, could work with a much, much, smaller vessel, like a shuttle." Ash stated, over the open comm channel. "We're, likely. to unravel sub-space if Enterprise goes to warp, however. The pocket we're hopping to might well be gone before we get to it." The Chief Engineer continued. "Coaxial is still available for use and will get in and get us out. Granted, we'll have to endure some abuse, for 2 minutes, while the drive resets but we'll have plenty to do while waiting." She added, clearly having an idea on how to rescue the Stargazer. "If we envelope the Stargazer is a tuned, static warp bubble, inside the rift, we can coaxial into stable space and release the Stargazer from that static warp bubble, there." Ash proposed, knowing the idea would be met with skepticism. "It will work, Captain. I've been dragging my, proof of concept, around with me for 40 years in the form of that, stupid, black, doctor bag." She stated.

Willian looked at the Communications Officer, then back toward the keypad, "Good work, Ensign. Commander, prepare to implement your plan then get up to the Bridge."

"Will do, Captain." Ash replied. "Lt. Jardok, I will send you the parameters for the generation of the tunes, static warp bubble. You have the appropriate background in temporal mechanics. Lt. Commander Gojir and myself will be tied up with resetting the coaxial drive." The Chief Engineer stated.

Thirty seconds later the instructions for crating the tunes, static warp bubble arrived at Lt. Jardok's station; encapsulation, extraction and the temporal aspects that would make the whole encounter seem, instantaneous, to those aboard the Stargazer.

The Vulcan Science Officer nodded, "Understood, Commander, I am preparing to implement based upon your instructions and am sending the specifications to the Helm."

"Received," Aiden announced as he typed on the computer panel. "Captain, do we proceed?"

William rose back from his seat and walked toward the viewscreen, looking at the horrific rift before them. Taking a deep breath he uttered a single word, "Mark."

=/\= Main Engineering =/\=

Lieutenant Commander Ialo Gojir typed rapidly on the Warp Propulsion Console, trying her best to keep the ship from exploding around them. The Cardassian Engineer was mentally reviewing every detail she had ever read about the Burn and the actions taken by the few ships that survived to prevent a Core Breach. Even with all of her knowledge from their experiences, she was still afraid that this was going to be too much for the older starship to handle.

Glancing over she saw the First Officer and a group of others entering the room. At the same time a pipe burst nearby, sending pressurized steam toward a side area with two technicians in the line of fire.

Exiting the lift, Bishop saw the pipe burst and without thinking, he just reacted. "MOVE!" He hollered as he raced to the technicians location to push them out of the way.

Since departing the bridge for Engineering prior to the disturbance Lieutenant Blake had found himself frantically scrambling to assist Ash and Gojir. They were both experts in their fields, their combined thinking power made him regularly believe he was a First Year Cadet again every time they had a serious discussion. Right now with the ship on the verge of disaster he was intently focused on preventing Armageddon he'd failed to register the erupting pipe, and Bishop's warning until he felt the Captain's weight upon him roughly shoving him along with the second technician to safety.

"Captain," he wheezed feeling winded. "Thank you. Are you alright?" he asked after a pause.

Bishop rose somewhat slowly, helping Lt. Blake up as he did so, while the other tech got to his feet on his own. "Fine Lieutenant. Need to keep your head on a swivel." He quipped then asked, "What's the situation?"

"Noted," Dylan replied feeling sheepish that the Captain saved his ass. "We're on the brink of a core breech," Blake explained quickly. "We're hurrying to purge the anti-matter to stabilize things - things are hanging in the balance. Talk to Ash to get a bigger picture, I'm sorry Captain I can't really spare the time to talk."

R'elle came up beside them. She gave them the once over. "You two alright? That could have hurt Lt! Better be more careful!"

"We're good thank you Counselour," Blake assured both the Caitan and the CMO whom was also present.

"Excellent! So shall we proceed? There might be people who need us!" R'elle said.

Ialo silently thanked Lieutenant Blake for taking the time to talk with the people from the Bridge as it gave her and Commander Ash time to continue working on saving the ship. Standing at the Warp Propulsion System console, the Corps of Engineers specialist was typing quickly on the wall mounted workstation. She sighed as the ship's safety protocols fought with her, but she was determined. Interfacing and using every emergency override she knew, the Cardassian Commander input a detailed command sequence of programming into the computer. By simulating a Warp Core Breach, while facing the real possibility of having one, she was able to get the dilithium chamber purged. She still didn't know how she'd done it, but she had.

"Dilithium Chamber purged!" The Commander said triumphantly. "How is it going with the magnetic constrictors?"

"Primary, secondary and auxiliary overrides have failed. I am initiating a manual override!" The Chief engineer yelled down from ten meters overhead. Hanging by her tail, from a support strut, the small, Tuansee braced her feet against the side of the, primary, magnetic containment, grabbed hold of the access handle of the control unit, and with a, surprisingly loud, warrior-like, yell pulled, with all her might. The unit freed itself from its casement with the metallic ping of severed, tritanium, retaining pins. In the effort to free the control unit Ash lost hold of the support strut with her tail and she, with the control unit still in hand, made a rapid decent to the deck where the Chief Engineer made a, rather hard, feet first, landing that knocked the wind out of her but sh seemed all in one piece.

The Cardassian Assistant Chief Engineer turned to see Ash, immediately concerned for the wellbeing of the ship's Chief Engineer, "Are you alright?" The ship rocked slightly from the impact of another instability.

"I'll be fine." the Tuansee grunted, after a few seconds. "Without the control module magnetic containment will scram to its default state automatically. WE should be good." She added and, slowly, fell back onto her back side. "I think I may have pulled something." she admitted.

"Doctor," Ialo called out.

"I'll be fine a few minutes." The Chief Engineer repeated, quietly, and dumped the heavy control module she was still holding onto on the deck next to her. "I should have let go of that damned thing but I didn't want anyone to get hit by it." She muttered.

The Cardassian shook her head, "Still won't hurt for them to check you out."

Cyrus moved quickly over to where Ash was at, and knelt down beside her. His medical tricorder was out to examine her. "I do appreciate you keeping it from hitting anyone, Ash." his voice quiet. (Anything besides some contusions?) he also called over his shoulder "How is everyone else doing?"

Ash looked up at Dr. Marner while he did his scan and smiled. The little Tuansee had weathered her, heavy, landing well and had a couple of pulled muscles in her legs and back but was, otherwise, fine. "I'll be fine, in a few minutes. Sore, but, fine." She told him and stretched, with a little bit of a wince, in her seated position.

Cyrus gave a nod, he was going to keep an eye on her, pulled muscles were not a joke but also the situation they were in, was especially not good. "I am not wanting to go through another experience like when I first arrived. Thing is I am also worried this will be worse. However I am not an engineer. Anything I can help with?" he rose to his feet to go take a look at Bishop.

"You go, doctor, I'll be fine." Ash repeated, knowing she would recover from her injuries, in a few hours, and be fine other than some lingering pain. "Go look after Captain Bishop." She suggested as Cirus left to do, exactly, that.

"Wow, Ash! That was some move! I appreciate you making sure no one else got hurt! Still I really think you should let Cyrus have a look at you, just t be sure!" R'elle said.

Ash looked around. "Why haven't we gotten the hell out of here. Local space is coming apart. I can feel that much." She stated and activated her tri-comm.

"Ash to the bridge. We're in a bad place here. Why haven't we bugged out yet?" She asked, politely.

"Captain," Ialo called out noticing the First Officer nearby.

"Lieutenant Commander Gojir." Bishop replied. "What can I help you with?"

Gojir was about to answer when she heard the Captain's voice come through the comm.

"Standby Ash, but stay on channel," Willian said, but didn't mute the channel, "Ensign, hopscotch?"

"Hopping from pocket of stability to pocket of stability, using warp, could work with a much, much, smaller vessel, like a shuttle." Ash stated, over the open comm channel. "We're, likely to unravel sub-space if Enterprise goes to warp, however. The pocket we're hopping to might well be gone before we get to it." The Chief Engineer continued. "Coaxial is still available for use and will get in and get us out. Granted, we'll have to endure some abuse, for 2 minutes, while the drive resets but we'll have plenty to do while waiting." She added, clearly having an idea on how to rescue the Stargazer. "If we envelope the Stargazer is a tuned, static warp bubble, inside the rift, we can coaxial into stable space and release the Stargazer from that static warp bubble, there." Ash proposed, knowing the idea would be met with skepticism. "It will work, Captain. I've been dragging my, proof of concept, around with me for 40 years in the form of that, stupid, black, doctor bag." She stated.

"Good work, Ensign. Commander, prepare to implement your plan then get up to the Bridge."

"Will do, Captain." Ash replied. "Lt. Jardok, I will send you the parameters for the generation of the tunes, static warp bubble. You have the appropriate background in temporal mechanics. Lt. Commander Gojir and myself will be tied up with resetting the coaxial drive." The Chief Engineer stated.

Ash got herself to her feet, hobbled over to her work station, and spent a few seconds typing away on the interface before looking to Gojir. "Give the bridge the go ahead. Coaxial, when they're ready up there. we're going to get the crap beat out of us when we arrive so it'll take both of us to get the drive reset to get back out.

"To keep the ship safe I have deactivated the standard Warp Drive and switched us over to the Coaxial Drive only." As the rest of the crew returned to the Bridge, Commander Gojir nodded to Commander Ash, "I'll handle things down here since the Captain wanted you back on the Bridge. I'll be ready to implement when you are."

Ash nodded to Gojir. "IF anyone can manage things down here, alone, it's you just, two pieces of advice; mag boots and an anti-grav belt. You'll bounce around a whole lot less." The chief engineer suggested before she took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then trotted off toward the doors to main engineering at an, terrain eating, pace of long loping strides.

=/\= Main Bridge =/\=

Jardok was a man out of time. Born in the 23rd Century, in an era when time travel was still impossible, he'd been part of a team that proved the impossible to be a reality. Then he got thrown forward in time because of a simple accident, an accident that was beyond his control and prevented him from going back home. After having stabilized himself within the galaxy and become a Temporal Integrations Counselor, he found himself thrown forward again and back in the role he'd had for so long: a Starfleet Science Officer.

And he still didn't know how they were going to pull this off.

Being Vulcan he had strong feelings, despite what so many thought. Ever since the accident he had been more and more incapable of hiding them like he once was and he was doing everything he could to keep himself steady right now. This was one of the most dangerous maneuvers that they had ever attempted and it could likely destroy all of them. The most surprising part was this was all for an enemy. An enemy! It was hard to fathom. It took all he could not to sigh.

"Mark," the Captain ordered as the Bridge doors opened.

"Engaging Coaxial Drive," Helm Officer Crowe confirmed as he opened the propulsion systems controls. He activated the Drive.

Coaxial Warp operated on different principles than a regular Warp Drive. Instead of creating a Warp Field and manipulating that to travel, the Coaxial Drive folded space similar to the Elway Theorem for travel. Thanks to the Drive, Enterprise could travel immense distances near instantly without the threat of accidentally colliding with space objects, since it’s not actually traversing normal space. Despite this there was still a lot of danger because the Drive was prone
to overload due to particle instabilities and could destroy subspace for up to a billion kilometers if it failed.

Jardok was almost ready for that to happen. Instead, he got the dizziness and nausea this time. Willing himself through it, the Vulcan Scientist entered commands on the panel, "Tactical, if you could adjust the shields to the parameters I just forwarded it may help us with the after effects."

Zim saw the instructions appear on his console. Silently he chastised himself for not thinking of this himself. However, he knew to leave it to a Vulcan to think about what most people forgot about. "Shield harmonics and parameters confirmed."

"Ensign," Willian called, "Try to raise the Stargazer the moment we are in range."

"Aye Captain! [Please let this work!]" Aqua prayed quietly, subconsciously crossing her fingers, legs, and toes.

Willian looked at his Operations Manager, "We're going to need to get that warp shell in place as quickly as possible. Nathan, as soon as Aiden says we're in position engage the field, but keep a close eye on it and coordinate with Ash."

"Understood sir," Hawkins nodded having already begun to manipulate ships systems to allow for a speedy deployment knowing time was critical. This was to be a fine balancing act but with Ash' expertise and the crew's ability he was confident they could extract the Stargazer from harm as well as themselves.

"I am on my way to the bridge, Captain." The Chief engineer announced as she traversed the substantial distance from main engineering to the bridge in a turbo-lift. "I'm not sure about communicating with the Stargazer. We jump in, encapsulate the Stargazer in the tuned, static warp bubble with a .001 time dilation so they're unable to act in the 2 minutes it will take us to get out of there, and then pull them out once we've jumped to stable space. I don't trust Admiral Tua any further than I could throw this ship. We can adjust the time dilation to a 1.0 once we're out and have a heart-to-heart with the Admiral, if you want further options." The Chief Engineer explained, the last few words as she emerged onto the bridge.

"There will be potential hostile arrivals," Galatea interrupted. "As well as injured. We must see to them."

"Right. Doctor, if you could see to the sick and injured I'd appreciate it. R'elle, I'm sure that they'll need some mental health intervention as well. I want every available person providing security though too. We don't know who we're bringing aboard."

"I have already assigned teams to all critical areas of the ship. No one gets in with out confirming authorization. The Bridge will have a detail as well. Our guests are not to move through out the ship unescorted." Zim informed Galatea of the plans that he had already put in place. As much as he did not like it he and the woman thought alike.

He looked at his First Officer, "When this is over we are having a drink."

Bishop nodded in agreement. "Several sir."

Xasx spoke up, "Captain, you must help the Explorer as well! They are just as at risk."

Willian glanced at his XO, "Nathan, thoughts?"

Bishop didn't hesitate. "We get ourselves repaired enough to help. Then we proceed to help the Stargazer. Once we're successful in that we can turn our attention to the Explorer. We need to do this in logical steps sir. We can't afford to go dashing about. The ship won't take it."

"You are definitely correct, Captain," Willian answered as he looked at his XO. "Stargazer's worse off, so it's our first jump. Then we'll go after the Explorer. I want to save both ships though. Starfleet can't afford to lose anyone."

Bishop nodded in agreement. "I concur sir. I would make a recommendation that we use the cargo bays for temporary holding areas and triage if the latter is needed. I also recommend that we have security personnel there as well ... as an added precaution."

"About the only way to make it safe to have any of their personnel on board, injured or otherwise, will be if they're stripped to their birthday suits. Not very dignified, but, when any piece of clothing can double up as weaponry..." Ash suggested, in a serious tone.

"I don't want a bunch of naked people running around my ship. Even though these are unusual circumstances, we still have to maintain the basic tenets of the accords for the treatment of prisoners." Willian considered for a moment, "Commander Hawkins, I know that we're all up to our eyeballs in challenges right now, but I want you to reinitialize the configuration we put into place at Svian II for the Transporter Brig and lets leave them all in the buffer for now. Only bring the Senior Staff over from the Stargazer and we will deal with the rest later. Can you do it?"

Aqua couldn't help a snort at the thought of a bunch of naked people running around the ship...then shook her head, shuddering at the reality of what trouble THAT could cause!

Hawkins paused for a moment considering what the Captain had asked and weighed up the time remaining: "I'll need to make some modifications to fit the new parameters, it will be tight, but yes. I can do it."

Willian nodded to the Operations Manager, authorizing the changes to be made to the Transporter system and things started to get choppy around the ship. The subspace rift was tearing at them far stronger than the former Admiral had imagined was possible. Throughout the Bridge the crew rushed to keep the ships together as they executed their daring plan to save the day. The only thing was that there may have been too many variables to the equation this time.

The Captain typed quickly on the keypad of his chair, checking his own readouts and settings as the crew initiated their crazy plan. The static warp shell engaged as the ship rocked around them. Consoles winked on and off as the power demands were off the scale. Sparks erupted from consoles as the lights around them flickered. The Captain could see it on the sensors. A new barrier was forming.

"Nathan, begin bringing the crew of the Stargazer over," the Captain ordered. "Ash, whatever you're going to do you are to do it fast."

"Beginning transport," Hawkins announced hoping he'd been able to make the modifications in time and there was still enough power left in the reserves for keep every vital function working.

The Chief engineer placed her hand against the interface of the console she was now at and watched as it flashed red three times and then went, entirely, green. "It's done. We can Coaxial out as soon as it is available and release the Stargazer into stable space." Ash announced.

Crowe called out with his distinctive brogue, "I'm having trouble keeping us in position. There's a lot of temporal energy."

"Zim, get whatever power you can to the shields," Willian ordered. "Captain Bishop, start transferring nonessential personnel to the Saucer Module as a precaution."

Bishop nodded, Yes sir, I'll get started on it right now." His voice serious, resolute. There was no time to waste as he sent directives to all departments to have nonessential personnel transferred to the saucer module. He then sent a ship wide alert via the ship's com system that all civilians were to go to the saucer module immediately.

Galatea added, "The anomaly is stabilizing, Captain, but we are running the risk of losing antimatter containment!"

"Mister Blake see what you can do to strengthen our anti-matter containment! Ash, how much longer?"

Still in engineering with Commander Gojir Blake's strained voice filtered through the coms: "We're working on it Captain."

"Twenty-two seconds, Captain." Ash replied. "It's two minutes to reset Coaxial using presets. It guarantees we're able to use it again, in two minutes, if we have to jump. Jump too soon and it'll get grumpy and require a manual reset that'll take hours." The engineer advised.

Quickly typing on her workstation, Galatea reviewed the data that was coming in through the various sensors and scanning equipment that was in use by the former flagship. The android sighed as she read over the data being displayed, "I don't think that we have that long, Captain. The warp shell is having an effect and the anomaly is collapsing, but not in the time frame before we lose our containment system."

"How long until we lose containment?" Captain Targaryen asked trying to maintain as serene a demeanor as he could given the circumstances of the ship nearly shaking apart around him. In his head he imagined the ship exploding around him, caught up in the dangers of what was going on in subspace around them. He moved the image away, leaving it trapped among so many nightmares of the destruction of the galaxy at his hand.

"Containment field's at critical," the Helmsman announced, "We're losing it."

Sighing, Willian knew they were out of options. He heard Ash's words repeat through his head like an ominous warning, but he also knew that if there was no ship left he wouldn't have to worry about resetting the Coaxial Drive. Wherever they were in the process, however many they had saved, it had to be enough.

"Jump!"

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